


Starlight

by stellarel



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Gen, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-17 23:49:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28857621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellarel/pseuds/stellarel
Summary: The Doctor takes you to a starlight festival. It might be a date. It feels like a date.This is literally just fluff. Nothing bad happens in this fic. Only soft things.
Relationships: Thirteenth Doctor/Reader
Comments: 8
Kudos: 26





	Starlight

**Author's Note:**

> this is for everyone craving some Softness tm in their life in these shitty shitty times

"The Sirius system starlight festival!" The Doctor starts, excited, doing a little twirl on her way around the console. "It's a binary system, and every so often, the two stars align and there's a huge celebration!" She grins, and you lean forward, instinctively answering her smile.

"Well, I say align. It's actually more like they misalign. But one of the local moons is entirely made of crystal and opal and when the sunlight hits it just in the right angle, it makes the whole place seem like you're inside a wonky funhouse prism!" She explains, already punching in the coordinates. "What do you say?"

"Sounds beautiful." You smile, looking forward to the new adventure.

After all the running and fighting and danger and evil, a starlight festival sounded pretty good.

"It's supposed to be breathtaking. Never been before, but I've heard stories. Huge thing for the locals, very popular." She focuses on the controls for a bit before looking up and tilting her head slightly. "Also, supposedly, very good cocktails."

You grin, and lean to the console. "What are we waiting for, then?"

She smiles, and pulls a lever.

Then, she turns around and clasps her hands together. "Okay! So. Bit of a tactical detail, I hear it's traditional to dress in shimmering fabrics, so we should probably do that, first." She tilts her head up. "The TARDIS will pull something up, won't you, dear?"

The TARDIS whirs quietly, and you don't understand it, but the Doctor evidently does, because she smiles, soft, and presses her hand to the console gently. "Thank you."

The Doctor turns to you again, the same smile still lingering on her lips. "Check your closet, there should be something there."

And there is; several new clothes had appeared as if out of nowhere, all in different shades of sparkly. Sequins, and holographic prints, glitter, and something that looked like what would happen if you liquidized a mirror and turned it into a fabric, and, more than one item of clothing that reminded you of a disco ball.

You pick out the ones you like the most, quietly admiring the way even this light seemed to reflect off of the fabrics. You could see the point of why they would do this; must add to the magic.

When you're done, you head back to the console room, and find the Doctor already waiting.

She’s changed into a shimmering suit, too; it resembled her usual getup, except that this one was embedded with something that reflected light off of it, like a thousand little prisms. 

She smiles when she sees you, and leans off of the console.

"Brilliant!" She does a little twirl again, and the hem of her suit jacket goes flying.

(She looks happy, and sparkling, and beautiful, and it almost makes your heart ache).

"Shall we?"

She offers you her arm, and you take it.

Smiling, you walk out of the door.

The TARDIS had landed on some side alley, a little ways away from the bustling crowd, and the Doctor slips her hand into yours, and pulls you into the middle of the chaos.

It's beautiful; like she'd said, the whole scene seems to be made of crystals and opal and something that sparkles like fractals of ice, and it is breathtaking. Everyone is dressed in sparkling clothes, and there's even something in the air that makes it look like it's shimmering, like there's the faintest bit of glitter floating through the air, reflecting the double sunlight. The ground is made of smooth opal, carved into roads, and the buildings all reflect the light, too.

When you look at her, the Doctor is smiling at you.

In that excited way she does, all _see, isn't this amazing?_

(The light reflects off of her eyes, too, making them look like burning stars).

You breathe out, and without realizing you're doing so, smile. "It's incredible."

"I know!" She says, "The natives here call it the Starlight festival. Or, well, not really, but that's pretty close. Their language is a bit different from yours. But they saw how this moon sparkles, and they decided to embrace it with their entire culture, make it the basis of their calendars and their legends and their mythology, and they write songs about it and dress themselves up in sparkly fabrics as if to say _see, I'm sparkling too, for you._ "

She grins, and her eyes meet yours again. "I love moon cultures." She adds, and it sounds like she's mainly saying it to herself. Just thinking out loud.

(Her hand is still in yours, and she runs her thumb over the back of your hand).

Then she jumps into action again, pulling you further into the sea of people and in one fluid (and quite impressive) movement grabs two glasses of something off of a tray nearby.

She hands you one, her eyes sparkling. "Did I mention the famous drinks?"

You take the drink, and inspect it for a moment. It doesn't look like much - it's a clear liquid, and when it moves in the glass, sometimes it looked like opal, too, with just the fainest bit of colors reflecting in the swirls. You weren't sure if that was the drink, the glass, or the surroundings; everything here seemed to shimmer, reflecting light off of everything else.

"Why is it famous?" You ask, curious.

"Taste it." She smiles, like she knows, but wants you to find out for yourself.

You look at her for a moment and then take a sip, not quite knowing what to expect.

The taste isn't very strong, but it is good.

You're not quite sure _what_ it tastes like, but it is good. There's maybe a hint of vanilla, maybe some lavender, and honey, which feels a bit weird in a cold drink, but somehow still works. It's a weird mix of flavors, or maybe more so the _idea_ of flavors, because it feels distant, somehow.

You look at the Doctor, waiting for her to explain something about this, because you doubted the only reason these drinks were famous is because they taste like vanilla.

She smiles, and doesn't explain anything. "What'd you think?"

You lick your lips, thinking. "Good. A bit weird. Good weird, though?"

She nods. "What did it taste like?"

Squinting your eyes a little, slightly suspicious, you study the look on her face for a moment. You were pretty sure there was some trick to this, but you weren't sure what, yet. But she looked like she was waiting for you to realize something, and like she was excited about it, so you went along with it without quite understanding what _it_ was.

"Vanilla, I think. And maybe honey? Oh, and lavender. But also not really any of those. More like it was the idea of vanilla, you know?"

She smiles, bright and bold and beautiful, and then she licks her lips and nods a little. Takes a sip of her own drink.

You wait for her to say something.

She doesn't.

"What does yours taste like?"

She tilts her head a little. "Interesting."

"Interesting?" You repeat. Is that a flavor to Time Lords?

"Interesting." She nods again, "And good. Gentle. Can a drink be gentle? I feel like this is gentle."

"Don't know." You tilt your head a little, "Can I try?"

Then she smiles, and it seems to warm her whole face up. She looks at you, and you realize that this is the moment she's finally going to explain _why_ the drinks were famous. You could see it in her eyes.

"Doesn't work like that." She licks her lips. "It tasted like that because I'm the one tasting it."

You furrow your brows a little bit. "Explain?"

She smiles at you, leaning a bit closer. "The drinks were designed to taste different based on who is drinking them." She starts, and her smile turns a little bit softer, for a moment. Her voice gets softer, too. "This is the starlight festival. In their native language, the words for ‘starlight’ and ‘love’ are the same. It was designed to taste like something that makes you think of love. Or starlight, I suppose. Same thing, according to them."

You don't know what to say, so you just stare at her, and blink a couple of times.

"Isn't that amazing?" She asks, and you nod.

"Yeah." Is the only thing you manage to say, because what you're really thinking is;

_Your drink had tasted like things that made you think of her._

"I love new things." She sighs, and quietly, you wonder what her drink had really tasted like.

Then she shakes her head a little, as if to get rid of a thought, and straightens her posture to look over the crowd.

"Well, come on! Lots of stuff to see, here."

And she pulls you along, and you follow. What else could you do?

There are carnival games and music and dances and plays, and the Doctor can't quite decide what to do first, so she does everything. She pulls you into some sort of a dance that makes your head spin, and really, it is mostly spinning, the whole dance, she is twirling you around in the sea of couples and you quickly lose count on which way is which.

But it feels suspiciously much like at least some of the spinning in your head is because her closeness. Because she _is_ close and her hands are on your waist and and she is smiling at you and she looks happy and relaxed and the light makes her hair look like spun sunlight, and she's so beautiful it makes your heart ache.

Next, she finds a band playing some sort of local folk music - she tells you about the instruments, all of which are sparkling, but you pay more attention to the music, and the fact that when she smiles at the musicians, her eyes sparkle, too. 

She tips the musicians in local currency, and you had no idea how much money it was, but based on their reactions, it was a lot. The Doctor is too busy to notice their gratitude though, already moving to the next booth, where some sort of carnival games were taking place.

Immediately participating in some game or another, the Doctor is like a bouncing ball of excited energy. You're not sure what the point of the game is - it seems more complicated than the ones you'd ever seen on Earth - but she seems to know it, and she's good at it.

You decide to let her play in peace for a moment, and take the opportunity to look over the other booths nearby. There were several jewelrymakers, people selling food, fabrics, trinkets, and in at least one instance, prophecies. You focus on one of the jewelry booths, admiring the opals and intricate designs and the way the jewelry is reflecting light into small rainbows on the display table.

They're beautiful, like everything else there.

You smile at the person behind the counter - a young man dressed in some sort of a silver, shimmering cloak and with glitter on his face. Or maybe that was just his skin, you weren't sure. He was probably one of the locals. It would be fitting if their skin shimmered, too.

He smiles back, politely, and you get back to admiring the jewelry. There's one in particular that catches your eye, and you carefully pick it up to hold it against the light.

"These are beautiful." You note to the person behind the counter, quietly.

He smiles. "Thank you."

"Did you make them?"

"Mostly. Well, I suppose nature did most of the work. All the stones are from a nearby cave system." He smiles, and then another man dressed in similar fabrics a little further away stacking boxes of some sort glares at him a little. Then, the salesman rolls his eyes and loudly adds; _"And my lovely husband over there helped too."_

You smile a little at the interaction, and then focus on admiring the way the light catches the necklace again.

"You should get your star to buy that one for you." He says, leaning to the counter. "Would go with the rest of your outfit."

You furrow your eyebrows a little at that, not quite sure if you'd heard right or if it was a translation error of some sort.

"My what?"

"Your star," He repeats, casually, before focusing his gaze on you again, "I'm sorry, are you not from around here?" He then asks, sounding genuinely apologetic.

"Oh, yeah, no." You answer, a little sheepishly. "Just a traveler. It's my first time here, actually."

He nods, and smiles gently. "Sorry, I just assumed. You understood the language, and are dressed for the part, and we don't get many tourists these days anymore."

"Why not?" You furrow your brows, surprised that people wouldn't want to come see this.

He shrugs. "People got bored, I suppose. A plain old natural miracle isn't interesting enough anymore, I think."

You give him an apologetic smile. "Sorry to hear that. It looks beautiful, I think. This whole place."

He nods, and looks like he doesn't quite believe in it.

Then, the Doctor waves at you excitedly from the game booth, and you instinctively smile and wave back. She seems to have won something, and, if you understood correctly, will now be proceeding to the next round.

The salesman observes this interaction quietly.

"Is she with you?" He asks, then adds; "She? They?" With a tilt of his head.

You hum quietly. "I think both are fine." Then you smile a little, mostly to yourself. "Bit flexible on the subject."

He nods, and goes back to watching the Doctor.

"She's good at that. Like, really good."

You chuckle quietly and look up, nodding. "She's good at most things."

"Did she bring you here?"

You furrow your eyes a little, not sure if you should answer or not. He seemed nice enough, but he was a stranger, and seemed to be oddly curious.

He shrugs. "She knows the game, and you don't. Since you said it's your first time here, thought it probably wasn't the other way around." 

He smiles, and you trust him.

You tilt your head a bit and shrug in agreement."Yeah. She brought me here. We travel a lot together."

Then, he looks over at her, and back to you after a moment. "You should get her to buy that one for you."

Your heart swells a little at the idea (and it seemed like she had enough money to throw around, so why not?)

"Oh!" He jumps to life, then looks over the table, "I have a matching one for her! Does she wear jewelry?" He furrows his brows a bit, peering at where the Doctor was. You doubted she was close enough to be able to see many details, but you weren't sure about the jewelrymaker's sight; maybe he could see better than you and your ordinary little old human eyes.

He hums quietly to himself and then calls out something to the other man, and it must be something very specific to the language, because you don't understand it. Then, he brings over a small box, and the salesman smiles and thanks him.

Opening the box, he smiles to himself. "Does this look like something she would wear?"

It's a little earring, intricate, and in the sunlight, reflecting all the colors of the rainbow.

You smile softy.

"Oh. Yeah, it does."

He nods, pleased with himself. "You should get matching ones."

You think about it for a moment, and then tilt your head, a little embarrassed. "I don't have any money."

He doesn't seem to care much, just shrugs. "Your star could buy them both. By now, she's won enough credits to buy everything on this table twice over."

You raise your brows a little, surprised. You weren't aware she was winning money, or credits, or whatever. You were imagining more so something like a giant stuffed animal.

The weird translation catches your ear again, but you don't ask about it. The Doctor had said the language was different from yours, so it was probably just something doubling over in the translation matrix.

"Not sure she's interested in buying jewelry." You say, a little apologetic. More likely, you think, she would throw all the money she won right back at the locals without wanting anything in return. Well, maybe a biscuit.

"She would, if you asked." He says, and he says it like it's a fact. "Who do you think she's trying to win the prize for?"

You furrow your brows at this a bit. You hadn't thought about that - mainly, you thought she just wanted to play.

You watch her, for a moment. 

"What's the main prize of that thing?" You finally ask, when you still fail to understand what exactly is happening in the game, or what they're competing about.

He smiles. "The best spot to watch the light show and an all inclusive stay at the crystal hotel. All expenses paid luxury date." He says it with a very knowing tone to his voice.

You take a deep breath.

A date.

_Yeah, okay. He was probably right._

You don't quite know if you should let yourself believe that or not - it _did_ sound like that was what was happening. And every other thing that had happened so far only supported that - the dancing, the hand holding, the way she smiled-

Really, if anyone else was in your place, you would tell them that that's exactly what's happening and that _this is a date._

But it was you, and you weren't sure, and it sure did feel a bit like that, but you were still just friends until proven otherwise, right?

Right?

A bell rings.

The Doctor wins the game.

The salesman raises a single shimmering eyebrow.

You sigh a little to yourself.

She bounces over to you, excited, and absolutely beaming. You smile back, of course, wondering how impressed exactly should you be about her winning.

(Based on the salesman's reaction, probably very).

"Did you see that?" She asks, grinning. Then, before you can answer, she adds; "Making friends?"

You smile a little. "Yeah, I saw that. Not sure what that was, but I saw it. You won?"

"I won!" She grins again, and then shifts to look over the table. "Oh, these are beautiful! Sparkly. Old-fashioned silverwork, impressive."

"THANK YOU!" The other man, who you have in your head dubbed as Husband Salesman, shouts from the background. "Good to know _somebody_ here appreciates my efforts."

The salesman rolls his eyes affectionately.

The Doctor smiles at them. Then she picks up the necklace you had been admiring. "We'll take this." She says, matter-of-factly. Then, she notices the earring, and points at it. "And that."

Smiling, the salesman picks everything up and slips them into tiny boxes. In the middle of this, he raises a brow at you, and you do your best to pretend you didn't notice and/or that it didn't happen.

The Doctor pays him probably much more than what she actually owed them, and you're honestly kind of glad about that. It's not like she needed a lot of local money if this was just a day trip, and in your opinion, they deserved every penny. 

Leaning to your side, the Doctor grins, and wraps an arm over your shoulders. The ice crystals in the air were starting to turn pink, slowly, and it seemed like at least one of the suns was about to set.

"So what did you win?" You ask, pretending the man hadn't told you.

She smiles, and shrugs, downplaying the win. "Oh, you know. Stuff. A spot to watch the misalignment, and a free dinner."

You lean into her side, closer, and her grip on your shoulders tightens a bit, as a reflex. "That sounds nice." You say quietly, and it's true. It does sound nice.

Almost heart-achingly nice.

"Which one should we do first?" You ask, at least partially to distract yourself from that particular thought.

The Doctor lifts up her hand to glance at her wrist, despite not wearing a watch. "The alignment starts in about half an hour." She nods to herself. "So, that first, dinner after?"

You smile a little. "Sounds good."

(The weight of her arm over your shoulders is comfortable, and you try your best not to miss it when she pulls away).

She leads you to a clearing, of sorts; there are some sort of crystals rising from the ground, and a platform of sorts, and there aren't any buildings but there are some sort of natural formations that tower over you like houses would.

And in the middle, a little higher up, there is an even clearing that seems to be submerged in - whatever the fractals in the air were - and even now, even when the suns were still in the sky properly, the light was being reflected to all possible directions, in tiny little rainbows that danced on the walls.

At some point, the Doctor takes your hand. She says it's to make sure you don't fall on the rocky ground, but really, you let yourself pretend it's just because.

When you get to the middle of the clearing, it's like being inside a very intricate snow globe, or maybe a prism, like the Doctor had said - but only if someone had stopped time and made the crystals in the air stand still instead of falling. And it is _breathtaking_.

The Doctor smiles, and you turn to look at her, and it damn near takes your breath away, too.

 _She_ is breathtaking, in the middle of the crystals, bathing in the light. All the different colors paint her skin and dance on her clothes and she is smiling, and, you think, if you didn't know her personally you'd think she must be some sort of a god.

(Maybe you still do).

Or maybe a force of nature - the light makes her eyes look like melted amber and gold, the heart of a sun, and she looks like some cosmic power brought to life.

(Which, when you thought about it, wasn't that far from the truth).

Yeah. Breathtaking.

She guides you to sit down on the ground, and somewhere in the back of your mind you register there's a blanket there, and, it seems, a fully set-up picnic.

"Part of the prize." She explains with a shrug, and you look over the things spread over the blanket.

(More blankets. A basket full of food. A mysterious jar of something. A glass bottle).

"More of their famous drinks?" You ask quietly, and she hums as a response.

"Yep. They're really proud of it."

You nod, and she settles better to the ground next to you, her legs crossed and leaning back on her hands.

Looking up at the sky, you lean back on your hands, too. "So what's supposed to happen here, exactly?"

She smiles, and looks up, too. "No idea, but it's supposed to be beautiful."

She grins at you, and she looks so happy it almost makes your heart hurt.

"How long before it starts?"

"I'd say five minutes. Ten, at the most."

The stars were both starting to set, now - in opposite directions.

It made sense, you supposed - like two sunsets at the same time, reflected through a million little mirrors. No wonder they built a festival around it. What could that be but beautiful?

And you were going to see it with her. Be in the middle of it all, with her.

The perfect moment.

But something was nagging at you, inside your head, something doubtful and unsure. 

And you didn't want it to ruin your perfect moment.

"Hey, Doctor?" You ask, a little nervous.

She hums, as a vague sort of non-response.

"How well do you know this language?"

"Decently, why?" She sounds distracted, eyes still trained to the sky.

"The salesman earlier." You start, a bit unsure how to phrase it. "He said something I didn't quite understand. I think it might be a translation thing?"

She turns to look at you, and waits for you to continue.

You take a deep breath. "He kept referring to you as my 'star'."

She blinks.

And then she smiles, eyes soft. "Oh, that. Not a translation error; it's a part of their language."

"What does it mean?" You ask, the nervousness starting to bubble to the surface, now.

But she was smiling, and she was relaxed, and she looked so happy you really weren't sure why you were nervous. It felt out of place.

"I think he was using it like humans use 'partner'?" You add, trying to confirm your suspicions. 

She looks up. "It doesn't just mean 'partner'." She says, quietly. "It means a lot more."

She pauses, smiles at you, and then averts her eyes again. "This is a binary system. Two stars orbiting each other. Or, well, they actually orbit a common center of gravity, but that's not the point."

You look up at the sky too, thinking it through.

And then it clicks;

_The words for starlight and love are the same._

"So when they say ‘ _star’_ ," She continues, and her fingers brush over your own on the ground, and you're not sure if it's by accident, but you really hope it isn't.

"-It really means that that person is, is _everything_ to you. You revolve around them and they revolve around you and it's a balanced, beautiful dance. Like their two stars. The most important thing to them."

You take a breath, and it feels like the whole moment is frozen in time.

"That's beautiful."

She nods. "It makes for a beautiful language. Great poetry. And it rings true, I think; once you find your star, the love radiates like starlight."

The Doctor smiles, and you think;

 _You_ radiate like starlight.

She tilts her head a little. "They're not wrong, you know." She pauses and shifts in her place, a bit, "I suppose you are." Then, she licks her lips, and continues, "My star, I mean."

Hearing the words makes your skin tingle.

She smiles, softly, and you take a deep breath, look down, an chuckle quietly.

"Yeah." You breathe out, "Suppose you're mine, too."

It's simple, really; it feels more simple than it probably should.

Natural.

And she smiles, and laces her fingers with yours, properly, now.

There's a glint of orange in the sky, and slowly, the colors start to shift and intensify.

"Oh!" The Doctor exclaims suddenly, "Before I forget!" She shifts in her place a bit and digs around her pockets. Finding the jewelry box, she opens it with a soft _click_.

And then she shifts again. "It's for you, in case that wasn't clear." She says quietly, and motions for you to turn so that she could put it on.

You smile, a little, and lean forward. "The salesman said you would get it for me."

"I saw you looking at it!" She says, defensively, but like she doesn't actually mean it.

"Was it really that obvious?" She then continues, after a small pause. "My feelings, I mean."

She opens the lock on the necklace and with gentle fingers, slips it around your neck. You shiver a little at her touch, and she pretends not to notice.

"I don't think anything's obvious with you, Doctor." You say quietly. "Especially your feelings."

Then, when she's done with the necklace, you breathe out an almost-chuckle. "I spent the whole day wondering if this was a date or not."

"Oh." She says simply. "Was it?"

You turn to stare at her.

And she is smiling. Like she knows exactly that, _yes_ , in the light of the current conversation, it definitely was a date, but she just had to be a little shit about it.

You nudge her shoulder a little, annoyed. 

She just smiles.

Then she shifts in her place again, and proceeds to pour you both drinks from the glass bottle. And then she settles down next to you again, now a little closer than before.

The sky is purple, now - or the crystals in the air were, you're not really sure anymore at this point - and the small rainbows they were casting on every visible surface were slowly intensifying in color.

You sip your drink, now fully aware that it was designed to taste like things like made you think of love.

_That made you think of the Doctor._

Quietly, you wonder if it's really what she tasted like, or if that would be better.

"What's yours taste like?" You ask, quietly, leaning back again, and watching her with curious eyes.

"Like I said." She shrugs a little, and mirrors your position, "Good."

You almost roll yours eyes a little. "That's not a flavor."

She shrugs again, seemingly not at all bothered by this. Then she tilts her head a little and raises an eyebrow slightly. "Do you want to taste it?"

You look at her, confused. "I thought that that's not how it works."

She licks her lips, and puts down her glass. "No," She takes a breath, "I mean-" She shifts, facing you, and moves _distractingly_ close to your face.

She licks her lips again. "-Do you want to taste it?"

Her eyes are half-lidded, and somewhere behind her head, the sky darkens, and it makes the crystals in the air look like every single one of them has a tiny light inside of them.

Your heartbeat is hammering inside your chest, and you know what she meant by it, now, and you're pretty sure you breathe out a _yes_ before she kisses you.

Her lips are soft and she is warm and the sky is full of tiny lights, and you feel like you melt into the moment. Somewhere in the back of your mind, you think;

_She was right._

_It does feel like starlight._


End file.
